Brett3rThanU

Recipes 

So I'm thinking for my wedding favor beer I want to do a belgian ale with honey as an ingredient, does anyone have any recipes? I've never done a belgian before so I'm lost when it comes to recipes in this realm. Looking for something that will be ready to drink mid-June. Thanks!

cheezydemon3

Recipes 

IMHO honey doesn't add much flavor. It ferments out incredibly well.

As for belgian......



Stone's vertical 090909 is a belgian imperial stout, and quite the beer.

They offer a recipe on their site.

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Houblon

Recipes 

"Belgian ale" is a huge range of beers.
Do you want the honey to be aroma & taste or just to dry out the beer?
I guess you could make a simple Wit and throw some honey after flameout but some people may not like the flavors of the yeast/spices along with honey.



While not a Belgian ale I do have a well proven HoneyWheat recipe Panty Dropper

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rugman

Recipes 

you can substitute some of the inverted sugar for honey i did a tripel last summer and went 50/50 honey and inverted sugar. I agree the flavor of the honey wasn't very pronounced but the smell was, and it added to the complexity

the bigger question is how are you going to condition this beer? IMO.. part of the Belgium thing is bottle conditioning and to higher co2 levels than most beers?

Oldsock

Recipes 

I’ll respectfully disagree, honey can provide a pretty prominent character if you use have a good source and use it at the right time.

Picking the right variety is very important (and not using cheap Chinese corn syrup infused generic honey is even more important). For a Belgian beer something like orange blossom honey is a great choice, it has a nice floral/citrus character that pairs well with lighter beers. If you want to do a dark Belgian a potent/distinctive honey like buckwheat would fit the bill (it almost tastes like dark DME).

When you construct your recipe add a bit of honey malt which will give you some sweetness and a mild honey flavor. Go easy on it though because it can easily become overbearing (~.5 lbs in 5 gallons is enough for me). Also go easy on the spices and finishing hops, you want as little competition for the honey aromatics as possible.

Once you have your recipe and honey picked out the next question is when to add it. Honey aromatics are very volatile the less heat and fermentation they are exposed to the better. I’ve had the best luck adding honey to the primary fermenter about a week after brew day. At this stage there is still plenty of yeast to ferment it out, and the damage to the honey will be minimized.

The last honey beer I did (a sour honey wheat beer) had 1.5 lbs of honey in the 5 gallon batch; that was enough to give it a very nice, distinct honey aroma even now after a year.

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cheezydemon3

Recipes 

[QUOTE=Oldsock;1857406]I’ll respectfully disagree, honey can provide a pretty prominent character if you use have a good source and use it at the right time.

QUOTE]

Good to know!

I put 2 lbs of a presumeably good quality local clover honey in a light pale ale with no real honey flavor or aroma that I can detect.

It was added with maybe 30 minutes of boil left. That could be the problem.

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Freezeblade

Recipes 

Yup, that'd be it. don't boil honey. honey in secondary or added after the bulk of violent fermentation is done.


and did I mention don't boil honey?

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jpsloan

Recipes 

Besides, isn't it advisable when doing a Belgian style to add your sugar adjuncts after peak fermentation is complete? That being the case, simply replacing a portion of your sugar adjunct with honey should work just fine, drying the beer, while maintaining the aromatics. Of course, honey has a notoriously inconsistant rate of attenuation, but with a Belgian that shouldn't be an issue I think.

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Brett3rThanU

Recipes 

Thanks for the responses guys. The reason I really want to add honey is because of where the term Honeymoon supposedly comes from (bride's parents giving husband a month's worth of mead). I guess I'm looking for a lighter colored belgian, not too high in alcohol, but something that will be good to drink by mid-June. Any recipe ideas guys? I'm lost when it comes to belgians.

Oldsock

Recipes 

Here is the base for my sour. If you lower the mash temp a bit and ferment with a Belgian yeast strain it should get you pretty close to your description:

Funky Flowers

Recipe Specifics
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Batch Size (Gal): 5.25
Total Grain (Lbs): 11.00
Anticipated OG: 1.056
Anticipated SRM: 4.9
Anticipated IBU: 15.9
Brewhouse Efficiency: 65 %
Wort Boil Time: 80 min

Grain/Sugar
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5.50 lbs. German Pilsener
3.00 lbs. Wheat Malt
1.50 lbs. Orange Blossom Honey
0.50 lbs. Crystal 10L
0.25 lbs. CaraPils
0.25 lbs. Honey Malt

Hops
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0.63 oz. Amarillo @ 50 min.

Extras
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6.00 gm Chamomile @ Flameout

Yeast
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WYeast 1056 American Ale/Chico (+ La Folie and Russian River dregs)

Water Profile
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Profile: Washington DC

Mash Schedule
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60 min @ 156

Pictures/details: http://madfermentationist.blogspot.com/2009/02/honey-wheat-flower-sour.html

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Check out The Mad Fermentationist for my adventures in fermentation (cheese, bread, ginger beer plant, and of course plenty of funky beer).